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2 - Economists Do Need Linguists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

By
Victor Ginsburgh  and
Shlomo Weber
Edited by
Cécile B. Vigouroux  and
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Cécile B. Vigouroux
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

We examine the notion of linguistic and other types of diversity that have become an important factor in evaluating economic, political, and societal progress. While most of the existing research on the measurement of diversity has been focused either on the number and size of different groups, this approach fails to take into account the degree of their distinctiveness. It is thus important to incorporate the notion of distances or dissimilarity between groups. We discuss various types of indices and their impact (positive or negative) on economic and political outcomes. We also use linguistic distances to explain economic behavior such as trade, migrations, translations, and acquiring new languages.

Keywords

Fractionalizationdisenfranchisementstandardizationlinguistic distancestrademigrationstranslationsacquiring languages
Type
Chapter
Information
Bridging Linguistics and Economics , pp. 56 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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